Door for shelving.



DOOR FOR G.

APP l 223 9?. Patented Apr. 24,1917.

9 9 k 4 sh EEEEEEEEEE 1.

1. B. O'CONNOR.

DOOR FOR SHELVING.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-25.19I5.

1,2Q3,89?, Patented Apr. 24,1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 2- TERS co.. PHO'IV-LITNQ. wAsmNcmN. n. c.

l. B. OCONNOR. DOOR FOR SHE LVING.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-25. VH5.

Patented Apr. 24, 1917.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3- J. B. OCONNOR.

DOOR FOR SHELVING.

APPLICATION man AUG-25.1915.

1 ,2231897 latented Apr. 24, 1917.

4 SHEETS SHEET 4- JOHN B. OCONNOR, 0F AURORA, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO LYONMETALLIC MANUFAC- TURING COMPANY, OF AURORA, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 'OFILLINOIS.

DOOR FOR SHELVING.

Specification of Letters Yatent.

Application filed. August 25, 1915. Serial No. 47,268.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN B. OCoNNoR, a citizen of the United States,residing at Aurora, in the county of Kane and State of Illinois, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Doors for Shelving, ofwhich the following is a specification.

My invention is particularly adapted to means for supporting the doorsof shelving, lockers, and other structures which maybe classed under thegeneric term cabinets, and while the principle of the invention may beapplied to structures of wood, it is especially intended and adapted forstructures made of sheet metal. There are many situations where it isundesirable to employ the ordinary hinged doors which swing away fromthe structure, and, consequently, ob-

struct the passage in front of it, darken the interior of the structureand expose themselves to damage from trucks or other passing objects.Sliding doors, have, of course, been previously constructed but theylack the advantages resulting from my invention. As a result of myinvention, the doors may be slid back to expose the entire front of anyone of a number of compartments or units. Another result of my inventionis that it becomes possible to securely lock both doors of a pair bymanipulating a single key. Another result is that the locking of onepair of doors contributes to the securing of the adjacent pair. Otheradvantageous characteristics, which it is my object to obtain, willbecome apparent as the description proceeds, for example, as the resultof my invention simple and efiicient means of supporting the doors areobtained and the doors are prevented from binding when being slid fromone position to another. These advantages result from the principlesembodied in the structure illustrated in the accompanying drawings inwhich Figure 1 is a front elevation of three sections or units ofshelving embodying my invention, the interior shelves themselves beingomitted for the sake of simplicity.

Fig. 2 is a plan view on the line 22, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view on the line 33, Fig. 4, showing the back ofthe doors;

Fig. 4c is a plan section on the line 4-4,

Fig.3;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged sectional elevation on the line 5-5, Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a detailed section on the line 66, Fig. 3;

Fig. 7 is a detail plan View on the line 77, Fig. 3;

Fig. 8 is a perspective of one of the brackets by which the track issupported, the location of such brackets being best indicated in Fig. 6;

Fig. 9 is a detail section on the line 9-9, Fig. 2, showing thesupporting bracket of Fig. 8 and some of the associated parts;

Fig. 10 is an enlarged detail in sectional elevation showing the guiderollers, track and associated parts;

Fig. 11 is a dropped sectional perspective showing the lock, locking barand associated parts;-

Fig. 12 is a dropped sectional perspectiveshowing one of the guides anda portion of one of the sliding doors; and

Fig. 13 is a fragmentary section on the broken line 1313, Fig. 1,showing the construction of a preferred kind of hand hold.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

In the form of structure selected to illustrate the principle of theinvention, the walls 1, back2, top 3, and floor l may be taken astypical of any structure of this class. As in a well known type ofshelving, the upright walls or partitions 1 are braced back and frontwith uprights or face strips 5. Rigidly secured in a horizontal positionnear the top and near the bottom of the shelving, just behind the doors,are tracks 7 which are tubular, resembling hollow cylinders or pipesexcept that they have a horizontal slot 7 at the back, as best shown inFigs. 9, 10, 11 and 12.. This slot permits the entrance of an arm 8extending horizontally from each of a number of brackets 8, the armbeing provided at its end with a cylindrical head 8 which fits rathersnugly within the track and firmly supports it. The parts are soarranged and proportioned that when assembled the tracks 7 extendhorizontally across the front of a number of units of the shelvingslightly in front of the front edge of the face strips 5, as well shownin Fig. 10.

The upper track serves as a guide and support for anti-friction rollers10, these Patented Apr. 24, 1917. 1

rollers being preferably arranged in pairs near the ends of the doors,as illustrated in Fig. 3. One roller of each pair is above and the otherbelow the track, and, consequently, the door rides freely and yetsecurely upon the track. While the particular method of mounting therollers may be varied, I prefer to mount them in sheet metal housings'11, shown on an enlarged scale in Fig. 10, the housing having an outersurface 11 which may be spot welded or otherwise secured to the back ofthe door and having two inwardly extending surfaces 11 terminating intwo opposed flanges'11. The axles 12 on which the rollers are supportedare themselves supported in the portions 11 and 11 of the housings.

The doors of each section or compartment occur in pairs, and forconvenience the door 15 of each pair will be called the internal and thedoor 16 the external memberof pair, the applicability of these termsbeing evident from an examination of Fig. 4: in connection with theother views of the drawings. The door 15 has marginal flanges 15preferably along all four edges. This serves'to stiffen the top andmakes it practical to construct the door of a thinner gage of metal-thanwould otherwise be employed. These flanges also serve to partiallyinclose the housings, as shown at the top of Fig. 10. They also serve toguide the doors at the bottom, the flanges being apertured to looselyreceive the lower track 7. The latter feature will become apparent byreferring to Fig. 12 where it will be seen that the flange 16 of thedoor 16 has an aperture 16 which receives the track and is extended toalso accommodate the arms 8 of the supporting tracks 8. As shown, it ispreferable to form channelsat both the top and bottom of the externaldoor and let them fit slidingly upon the upper and lower edges of theinner door. The channels thus guide the external door upon the internaland the doors may be regarded as telescoping one into the other. Byreferring to Fig. 4 it will be seen that the vertical flange 16 of theexternal door is wide enough to fit over the corresponding flange of thecompanion door 15, and it will also be seen that the front of the door16 slides in front of the door 15 and slightly overlaps the same whenthe doors are closed. In other words, the external door of each pair isslightly wider than the space which it is intended to close thusoverlapping the internal door to a slight extent. This insures properguiding action and a more perfect closure. It is clesirable to stiffenthe overlapping edge of the external door by a vertical beading 16.

Where a plurality of units or sections are employed the tracks 7 willordinarily extend across the entire set thus avoiding joints and thepossibility of coming out of alin-ement. In my construction, furthemore, the doors when. used upon a plurality of units or sections arearranged alternately, each internal door being arranged between twoexternal doors, and vice versa, as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2.Consequently, it will be evident that when these doors are all unlockedand free to travel, the door at one end of the set may be slid back adistance equal to approximately a half of the length of the entirestructure. Therefore, it is possible for each door to be brought intoregister with or squarely in front of its mate and slid completely awayfrom the section which it is intended to close. This is a greatadvantage under many circumstances. For illustration, let it be supposedthat my shelving is in use in the stock room of a factory where thevarious parts stored upon the shelves are not of suflicient value towarrant their being. kept in a burglar proof safe, but are ofconsiderable value making it desirable that the shelving be locked up atnight, or whenever the stock keeper is temporarily absent. By properlymanipulating the doors of shelving equipped with my invention, they maybe slid so as to completely expose the entire width of any singlesection, and in fact in the case of a considerable number ofcompartments the doors may be moved entirely away from those shelves orbins which contain the articles for which the stock keeper has mostfrequent calls. It will thus be evident that shelving of my constructionhas the greatest flexibility and enables the user to completely exposethe entire width of any single section and in some cases the entirewidth of a considerable number of sections. The doors may be storedopposite those sections for which there is infrequent need of access. Inany event when the doors are unlocked it is a simple matter to slidethem upon their tracks, thus enabling the user any moment to obtain freeaccess to the entire width of any section.

I will now describe means which I have provided for locking the doors.According to my invention, I provide means for preventing the doors fromsliding beyond the end of the shelving taken as a whole. This is truewhether the shelving consists. of a single unit or a plurality of units.The means here illustrated consist of stops 20, clearly shown at theright end of Fig. 4 and both ends of Figs. 1 and 2. These stops aresecured by being bolted or otherwise fastened to the uprights 5 and arepreferably hooked at the end so as to completely inclose the end of thedoor when locked. I also provide means for preventing the doors of apair from sliding relatively to each other. The means illustratedconsist of a link work, one of the members whereof may be fastened bymeans of a lock or equivalent device. In the preferred arrangement theseparts are constructed, as best shown in Fig. 3, where it will be seenthat a pair of links 21, 21 are permanently pivoted at the point 22 tothe inside of one of the doors. The other end of this link isarticulately connected to the free end of an arm 23 which forms one ofthe members of a bell crank pivoted at the point 24. The other arms 25of these bell cranks are connected to each other by a link 26. Twoparallel links 27 connect link 26 to a sliding locking bar 28. Said baris arranged vertically and travels through a guide or keeper 29. Nearthe upper end of said locking bar, which is shown in perspective in Fig.11, has an aperture 30 for receiving the end of a bolt 31 forming partof the lock 32. This lock is on the inside of the door but may beoperated by a key from the outside through the key hole 38. It will beevident when the bolt is retracted and the bar 28 is free to slidevertically in the guide 29, the two companion doors will be free toslide relatively to each other; but when the bolt is projected into thebar and the bar is thus prevented from moving, it will prevent the linkwork from working and thus hold the doors locked in extended relation.

As the bell cranks are connected together by the link 26 they mustalways rotate in unison and as they are also connected to the door 16(by the links 21) at two different points it follows that the doors musttravel at the same rate at the top that they do at the bottom and hencecannot bind. In other words, the link work constitutes a parallel motionand renders the doors non-binding.

It is also clear that if there is a plurality of pairs of doors and thedoors are prevented from moving beyond the end of the shelving the doorswill all be held against sliding when all of the pairs are held. againstmovement of their individual parts relatively to each other; that is tosay, no movement of any of the doors can occur when the doors of eachpair are locked relatively to each other.

To facilitate moving the doors, a hand hold of some kind is provided,the form here illustrated consisting of sockets 35, as shown in Fig. 1,and in detail in Fig. 13.

In operation, when the doors are all extended and locked, no movement ofany of them can occur. By unlocking any pair of doors, all of the doorsin the cabinet can be moved the length of a single door. In such case,limited access may be had to any one of the compartments or units. Byunlocking two pairs of doors, a compartment may be entirely exposed,provided, of course that the length of the compartment is no longer thanthe aggregate length of a pair of doors. If all the doors are unlocked awide choice is offered to the operator as to which compartment he wishesopened, and if desired, a-number of adjacent compartments may becompletely exposed. In manipulating the doors, little care is necessaryfor they are not only supported upon roller bearings but are providedwith special mechanism. which renders them non-binding.

In view of the foregoing, it will be seen that it is a simple matter toclose and look all of the doors and a simple matter to open them to anyextent desired. As the locking mechanism is, with the exception of theend stops 20, carried entirely upon the doors themselves, and as thetracks by which the doors are supported and guided may readily beattached to existing shelving or other types of cabinet, it is a simplematter to equip existing structures with doors embodying my invention.l/Vhen the doors are in place, the supporting means are invisible fromthe outside, especially when the doors are closed. Thus I avoid the useof external tracks, hinges and other projections which detract from theappearance of a structure and are frequently in the way.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. A cabinet having a track extending across the front, and a pair ofdoors slidable upon said track, one door of the pair having flangesfitting over the top and bottom edges of .the other door to be guidedthereby.

2-. A cabinet having a track extending across the front, and a pair ofdoors slidable 4 upon said track, one door having anti-friction rollersnear each end traveling upon said track and the other door havingantifriction rollers near one end traveling upon said track, the otherend of the last men-- tioned door being flanged to fit over the upperand lower edges of the other door to be guided thereby.

3. A cabinet having a plurality of com partments arranged side by side,a track extending across the front of said compartments, and a set ofdoors for each compart ment, the doors sliding upon said track, thedoors of a set telescoping with each other whereby they may be broughtapproximately into register, the track being continuous across the frontof the cabinet whereby the telescoped doors may be slid far enough tocompletely uncover a compartment.

4. A cabinet having a plurality of compartments arranged side by side, apair of doors for each compartment, the doors of z pair telescoping witheach other and the a ggregate length of the pair approximately equal tothe length of the cabinet, and a track upon which said doors areslidable to cover and uncover said com partments, said track beingcontinuous across a plurality of compartments to thereby permit thedoors of one compartment to of doors being slide over to a point infront of another compartment to thereby completely expose the firstcompartment.

5. A cabinet having a track at the front, and a pair of telescopingdoors traveling upon said track, the external door having a channel atthe end remote from the internal door whereby, when the doors arebrought into register, the channeled end of the external door will fitover the inclosed end of the internal door to thereby prevent theexternal door from swinging away from the plane of the internal door.

6. A cabinet having a track at the front, and an internal and anexternal door constituting a pair of doors traveling upon said track,the external door having a channel top and bottom fitting over the topand bottom edge of the internal door and the external door also having avertical channel at the end remote from the internal door, the verticalchannel fitting over the end of the internal door, whereby, when thedoors are in register, the external door will engage the internal doorat the top, bottom, and end. I

7 In combination, a cabinet having a track extending across the front, adoor traveling upon said track, a second door supported at one end uponsaid track and at the other end upon the first mentioned door, and meansfor keeping said doors parallelas they travel relatively to each other.

8. In combination, a cabinet having a track extending across the front,a pair of doors traveling upon said track, and a linkwork connectingsaid doors whereby when the elements of the link-work are lockedrelatively to each other the doors are prevented from moving relativelyto each other, said doors telescoping with each other,

whereby one door forms a guide for the.

other.

9. A cabinet having a track extending across the front, a pair of doorstraveling upon said track, two bell cranks fastened to one of saiddoors, and a link connecting said bell cranks to make them rotate inunison, said bell cranks also being link connected to the second door ofthe pair, said doors telescopically inter-fitting with each other,whereby one door forms a guide for the other. 7 v p 10. In combination,a cabinet having a track at the front, a pair of telescoping doorsslidable lengthwise of said track, a link work for compelling said doorsto maintain parallel relation to each other during relative travel, andmeans for locking said link work against working.

11. In combination, a cabinet having a track at the front, a pair oftelescoping doors slidable lengthwise of said track, a link work forcompelling said doors to maintain parallel relation to each other duringrelative travel, and a lock mounted on one of said'doors for preventingrelative movement of the members of the link work.

12. In combination, a cabinet having a pair of telescoping doors, meansfor slidably supporting said doors, a link work for'compelling the doorsto maintain themselves parallel to each other during their relativemovement, and a lock for holding one of the members of the link workagainst movement when the doors are extended.

13. In combination, a cabinet having a pair of doors movable relativelyto each other and capable of registering with each other, a trackwhereon said doors are slidable, a pair of bell cranks on one of saiddoors, means for compelling said bell cranks to rotate in unison, a pairof links connecting said bell cranks individually to the second door ofthe pair for compelling parallel travel of the doors, a locking baroperated by said link work, and a lock mounted on on of the doors andhaving a bolt adapted to engage said locking bar when in the position towhich it is brought by the link work when the doors are extended.

14:. In combination, a structure of the class described having a trackarranged in front, a pair of doors slidable relatively-to each otherlengthwise of the track, a pair of bell cranks mounted on one of saiddoors, a link connecting said bell cranks for compelling them to rotatein unison, links individually connecting said'bell cranks to the otherdoor, a locking bar operated by said bell cranks and mounted on the samedoor as the bell cranks, and a look also mounted on the same door as thebell cranks for looking said bar and thereby preventing movement of thedoors relatively to each other.

15. A structure of the class described having a plurality ofcompartments arranged side by side, a track extending entirely acrossthe structure at the front thereof, a plurality of pairs of doors,slidable upon said track, the aggregate length of the doors being equalto the total length of the structure, one door of each pair beinginternal and the other external in the sense that the external door isguided by the internal door and is capable of being broughtapproximately into register therewith, stops at the ends of thestructure for preventing the doors from traveling beyond the end of thestructure, and means on each pair of doors for locking said doors inextended relation.

16. A structure of the class described having a plurality ofcompartments arranged side by side, a track extending entirely acrossthe structure at the front thereof, a plurality of pairs of doors,slidable upon said track, the aggregate length of the doors being equalto the total length of the structure, one door being entirely supportedupon the track and the other door of the pair sliding upon the otherwhereby the two doors of a pair may be brought approximately onedlrectly in front of the other, stops at 5 the ends of the structure forpreventing the door from traveling beyond the end thereof, a link workupon each pair of doors connecting the doors together in pairs, andmeans for preventing movement of the parts of the link work relativelyto each other.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

JOHN B. OCONNOR.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

